Two Crichton novels to be published posthumously

Reuters Staff

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<p>Author Michael Crichton is shown in this May 2000 file photo.Jeff Christensen</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two novels by "Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton, one finished by him before his death last year and the other to be completed based on his notes, will be published posthumously, his publisher said on Monday.

Crichton, a doctor turned novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died of cancer last November at age 66.

The HarperCollins publishing house said a completed novel called "Pirate Latitudes," an adventure story set in Jamaica in 1665, was discovered in Crichton's files after this death and will be published this November.

HarperCollins Senior Vice President Jonathan Burnham described it as "a fantastically enjoyable and light-hearted adventure yarn."

The second book, to be published in late 2010, is a technological thriller "which explores the outer edges of new science and technology," HarperCollins said in a statement.

The book will be based on extensive notes and files that Crichton compiled before his death and will be completed by an author yet to be determined, HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said. The title has not yet been decided, Andreadis added.

Crichton wrote his first novels while attending Harvard Medical School. He was awarded his medical degree in 1969, the same year his first major best seller, "The Andromeda Strain," was published.

A global warming skeptic, he stirred controversy with his 2004 best seller on the subject, "State of Fear," in which the main villains are eco-terrorists.

Crichton won a number of writing and film awards and an Emmy for his work on "ER," the popular and long-running NBC television hospital drama that came to an end this month.

Reporting by Claudia Parsons; editing by Michelle Nichols and Will Dunham